The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued thefollowing statement:
The Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard L. Berman, hasmade public the correspondence between the US State Department and members ofthe US Congress on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement. The US Congressmen hadasked 45 questions to the Bush Administration seeking clarifications on variousaspects of the agreement. The answers provided by the Bush administration waskept secret so far because it would have completely exposed the false claimsbeing made by the Manmohan Singh Government before the Indian public regardingthe terms of the nuclear deal. The26-page letter made public yesterday reveals:
i. The US has given no binding fuel-supply assurance to India.
ii. There is no US consent to India's stockpiling of lifetime fuel reserves for safeguarded power reactors.
iii. Civil nuclear cooperation is explicitly conditioned to India not testing ever again.
iv. The US has retained the right to suspend or terminate supplies at its own discretion.
v. The letter makes clear that the 123 Agreement has granted India no right to take corrective measures in case of any fuel-supply disruption.
vi. The Bush administration's letter states that the 123 Agreement fully conforms to the Hyde Act provisions.
vii. The letter assures Congress that the US government will not assist India in the design, construction or operation of sensitive nuclear technologies, including enrichment and reprocessing.
The Left Parties had warned the UPA government about these provisions in thenotes submitted to the UPA-Left Coordination Committee, which have now beenvindicated by this disclosure. Each of the commitments made by the PrimeMinister in Parliament have been violated.
The Manmohan Singh government stands thoroughly exposed before the countryfor compromising India’s vital security interests. Proceeding with this dealwill mortgage India’s sovereignty and make India’s civilian nuclearprogramme vulnerable to US blackmail for the next forty years.
CPI (M) demands that the UPA Government suspend all further moves tooperationalise the anti-national nuclear deal.
